The choral music of Hyo-won Woo, the composer of Oh! KOREA, is being widely performed by universities and professional choruses in Korea, as well as throughout the world. The work exhibits Woo's remarkable compositional style, which displays traditional Korean musical influences. Hyo-Won Woo's Oh! KOREA consisting of four movements, is for chorus, two pianos, and both Eastern and Western percussion instruments. Woo's Oh! KOREA employs an excellent introduction to the Korean choral repertoire for Western audiences, rooted in traditional Korean folk tunes. As today's choral conductors, singers, and audience cannot fully appreciate the value of this traditional Korean work and will likely not understand its intended context, it is therefore necessary to provide an in-depth investigation of this work for any conductor considering a performance of this piece. This study includes influences of traditional Korean elements within Oh! KOREA and rehearsal and performance consideration for Western choir directors.

Thesis (DTh (Practical Theology and Missiology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This dissertation aims to analyse and evaluate the traditional Malawian Choral music as sung by young people in the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Nkhoma Synod with careful and critical consideration of the theological–liturgical outcomes. Such an analysis and evaluation reveals the neglected areas and the implications thereof for the Church, in aid of serving effectively her members. This will enrich and advance contextual theology as well as the liturgy in the Church. Chapter 2 discusses the approach the writers of Mark and Philippians took to fit into the new situations in which they were. This chapter functions as the basis for the subsequent chapters, as it tries to show how reinterpretation could have taken place. In so doing, a living expression of a living reality, which was reinterpreted in a particular place, at a particular time, for a particular purpose, will be noted in a reconfigured state. Chapter 3 will give an overview of theological–liturgical development in Malawi, and how the Gospel was brought in the light of the liturgy that evangelization assumed. The aftermath of traditional theology will then be assessed, including the impact of traditional theology on the Malawian people. Subsequently, the possibilities of coming up with a theology and a liturgy that is sensitive to the users are discussed. Chapter 4 examines traditional Malawian Choral music before the arrival of Christianity. A discussion of the way missionaries used English/Scottish music without blending it with the traditional music in the liturgy then follows. The consequence of such type of liturgizing and the initiative in the development of both English/Scottish, as well as traditional Malawian music will be shown. Chapter 5 provides an empirical study on what the young people in Malawi are singing in the CCAP-Nkhoma Synod by means of some sample areas. This includes an examination of possible influences that are compelling the young people to compose and sing these songs. This examination comprises an analysis of songs, the themes that are developing, and the reason for such themes. Chapter 6 contains suggestions for hymnological development in Malawi, based on the findings of the empirical study. This thesis acknowledges the importance of reinterpretation because of different confrontations that an individual or group experiences. To achieve this, a process of reconfiguration that involves re-interpretation and blending has been suggested and discussed. This dissertation will discuss the dialectic of experience and interpretation as regards continuous experiences of humankind due to new challenges. Such an approach provides the framework for the investigation of current experiences of present readers of the New Testament in relation to the first Christians’ experiences, which forced the reshaping of that symbolic world due to new religious convictions and experiences.

Currently in Japan there are 5,202 choirs registered as part of the Japan Choral Association. The majority of these choirs are amateur or professional choirs. This situation contrasts with that in the United States where colleges and universities are the primary entities perpetuating the advancement of the choral art. Most likely because of this, there is little if any academic investigation of modern Japanese choral music. Even in Japan, there is not a substantial body of academic study of this literature. As a result, this repertoire is seldom, if ever, performed outside of Japan.Numerous problems confront Western choral conductors interested in programming modern Japanese choral music that is based on traditional Japanese musical idioms. In this document, I have provided information that will allow Japanese choral literature to be accessible to non-Japanese speaking conductors. This information is divided into four areas. First, an overview of Japanese music history is provided. Next, a discussion of the elements of traditional Japanese music such as genre types, modes and tonalities provides the necessary background for a conductor to approach modern Japanese choral music. Third, a practical method whereby non-Japanese speaking choral conductors may transcribe the two phonetic Japanese alphabets into readable English phonetics is proposed. Fourth, a practical approach to the performance of modern Japanese choral music, inclusive of various musical genres, voicing, and instrumental complements is suggested. Discussion of representative choral works by three native composers including a work based on a folk tune, a work for women's chorus, a work for men's chorus, and a composition for mixed chorus and traditional Japanese instrumental complement provides concrete application of the aforementioned discussions.Lastly, in this document I will provide information on several contemporary native Japanese composers, their compositions, and their publishing companies to facilitate the acquisition and performance of this rich choral repertory.

Estonian composer Veljo Tormis (1930-2017) is one of the most prolific in his country’s history. A significant portion of his writing has been for choirs. Tormis composed most of his works under Soviet rule. During this communist reign of Estonia, Tormis turned to using traditional music. The source material for a large portion of Tormis’ choral output is regilaul, a type of ancient Estonian folk song. In 1991, Estonia gained their independence, thereby allowing Tormis’ compositions to be more easily seen, heard, and performed around the world. This dissertation presents a conductor’s analysis of a set of choral cycles composed by Tormis between 1964 and 1969, Looduspildid, or Nature Pictures. A set of cycles representing all of the seasons and incorporating prominent Estonian poetry, Loodispuldid represents one of Tormis’ most important works. It illustrates Tormis’ maturing style as he utilized a variety of 20th Century techniques like extended tertian harmonies, modal scales, pandiatonicism, clusters, and mixed meters. Tormis also employs his own orchestrally-derived techniques of carefully constructed simultaneous articulations along with cumulative chording. Each cycle contains its own unique style and feel. Sügismaastikud is perhaps the most tonal of the four. Most movements are pandiatonic and one uses the whole tone scale. On a macro level, Sügismaastikud moves from soft in the earlier movements to a fff climax on the final chord of the last movement. Talvemustrid also begins at a very soft dynamic level on a unison D4, grows to multiple ff dynamics throughout, and ends back at a soft dynamic on Db. The cycle is more harmonically adventurous than Sügismaastikud, with consistent chromaticism, octatonic scale, and marked dissonance. Suvenmotiivid only contains three movements, but continues the harmonic and rhythmic complexity of Sügismaastikud. The first movement, Põualim, immediately begins on a tritone with octatonic scale. Different meters occur simultaneously during the second movement, which also moves quickly through 4 keys. The final movement ends with orchestral voicing and a 10-note chord cluster. Kevadkillud contains six very short movements, most of which are pandiatonic like Sügismaastikud. There is far less chromaticism and harmonic complexity than the middle two cycles, almost as if Tormis is bringing the set full circle. Moreover, the final movement of this cycle (and the entire set) is really just one major chord with embellishments. As a set, Loodispuldid represents a thorough perspective of Tormis’ mature style. The analyses done as a part of this paper reveal an incredible efficiency in his writing. Motives have purpose and context. Each movement possesses a well-defined harmonic language and rhythmic identity. A variety of formal structures exist, from binary to rondo. Even the many through-composed movements are expertly crafted with clear direction.

This study investigated the effect familiarity with a teacher had on student interpretations of teacher verbal praise in seventh and eighth grade choral ensembles. A stimulus tape was constructed of 16, 30-second videotaped clips containing verbal praise of four teachers. Teachers identified their intent in the use of praise in each example. Students (n = 80) from the four choirs responded to the tape by labeling the praise in each clip as deserved or as one of three types of instructional praise (i.e., praise to encourage, to send a message to other students, or to seek student cooperation). Comparisons were made between choirs in labeling the praise. Comparisons were made also between each teacher's stated purpose in praising and the interpretations of choirs familiar and unfamiliar with the teacher. Choirs who were unfamiliar with the teacher differed from the teachers' own students in interpreting the praise: Students who knew a teacher labeled the praise as deserved in five clips, but unfamiliar choirs thought the praise served an instructional purpose. In four clips, choirs differed in their interpretations of the type of instructional praise. Students familiar with a teacher recognized their teacher's intent in praising in 12 of 16 clips. In some situations, familiarity with a teacher and context made a difference in detecting the teacher's purpose for praising. In five clips where teachers identified the praise as deserved, students unfamiliar with the teacher and context thought the praise was intended to encourage students. Students across choirs were particularly sensitive to a teacher's use of praise to send a message to other students. Students are keen observers of teacher praise. Findings suggest students discriminate between praise directed at the performance and praise used for instructional purposes, suggesting that observation instruments that rely on a single label for praise might miss important information. Findings support the importance of determining how teachers intend praise to serve and how students interpret the behavior.

An unusual opportunity to hear and perform this work has been afforded at North Texas State Teachers College by the presentation of the German Requiem in the summer of 1941. Furthermore, a Brahms Festival, including another presentation of the Requiem along with outstanding compositions of Brahms in other media, is to be given during commencement week of June, 1942. Not only does this type of emphasis promote interest among students and faculty, but it also serves as a stimulus to detailed study of the German Requiem, thus intensifying the immediate importance and personal significance of the subject.

Middle school programs occupy a unique place in choral music education. This study builds upon and makes a unique contribution to the body of literature in choral music education by introducing critical participatory action research into the social ecology (Shotter, 1993) of the middle school choral classroom during the “regular” school day with a non-select choral ensemble. I employed critical participatory action research methodology—a collaborative approach to understanding specific problems in education—because it is a systematic research process conducted for the purpose of generating knowledge that is valid and vital for the well being of learners, communities of learners, and for promoting social change (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Herr & Anderson, 2005; Kemmis and McTaggart, 1987; Mills, 2010). The purpose of this critical participatory action research study was to create a collaborative model of practice in order to make sixth grade choral music education more relevant and meaningful for learners. In order to accomplish this, I created a constructionist learning environment, applying domains of relevance set forth by Gergen (2001), and examined how this model of practice impacted the pedagogical practices of 19 sixth grade chorus students and their chorus teacher over the period of one semester. All participants collected evidence in the form of video recordings, interviews, journals and portfolios. All evidence was considered in light of the changes that occurred—individually and collectively—in pedagogical and organizational practices and in regard to the original research questions. This report illuminates ways that constructionist principles might be used to create a collaborative model of middle school choral music education and the pedagogical and social practices that emerge when beginning sixth grade students and their chorus teacher share responsibility for teaching and learning.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to collect descriptive data pertaining to students’ perceptions regarding the use of tap dance movement and its effect on the understanding of rhythms found in choral literature. This enquiry investigated the following questions: (a) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the difficulty of tap dance movement? (b) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the effectiveness of tap dance movement as a method toward promoting their rhythm accuracy when performing rhythms featured in choral music? (c) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the effectiveness of integrating tap dance movement with the study of select rhythm patterns chosen from choral literature in their retention of the rhythms? Over a five-month period, high school choral ensemble members (N = 88) were taught twenty-five rhythm patterns excerpted from choral literature, integrating tap dance movement with the instruction. The results revealed that the difficulty level of the movement, tempo at which it is executed, the changing of feet while performing the movement, and the amount of tap experience an individual possesses influence students’ perceptions regarding the degree of complexity of tap dance movement. Additionally, the data indicate the enjoyment of the movement, the demonstrations of the movement, the integration of music with the movement, the use of step names and counting, and the use of tap shoes are elements related to tap dance movement that students perceived to help promote their understanding of rhythms found in choral music. Moreover, the results pertaining to the students’ perception of how tap dance movement was an effective method of promoting their retention of rhythms found in choral music indicate a lack of agreement. While there were singers who found the movement to benefit their ability to memorize the examined rhythms, there was a comparable amount of students who indicated that they were unable to remember the rhythms following the instruction. Lastly, the findings provide information regarding the specific types of movements that students found beneficial to their rhythmic comprehension, adding to the existing literature and useful for replication in future studies.

This portfolio consists of eight works (five choral, one multi-media, one string quartet and one symphonic orchestra) written during my doctoral candidacy from 2011-2015. They are arranged according to genre - from choral works to instrumental, sorted according to the ensemble size and chronologically thereafter. In these works, there are some common traits – the application of interval of second is found in all pieces with distinctive purposes; the emphasis of poetic image in the aesthetic of Chinese music is observed in some pieces. Furthermore, characteristics of choral music such as homophonic progression among parts and cantabile melodic writing can be traced in the instrumental pieces, particularly in the slow section of the String Quartet. / A substantial part of this portfolio is allocated to choral music. Before admitting to the DMus program, I had been establishing myself as a choral composer and conductor in the local choral communities. The last five years I spent at CUHK inspired me not only on the possibility of new sound and harmonic approaches to this genre, but also, and most importantly, the structure and form of music. The diverse manners to develop a musical piece based on simple motives certainly contribute to consistency and coherence. This is inevitably a major breakthrough in my composition career. / The diverse inspirations are channeled into music compositions through different operations of the interval of a second, which contribute to the formation of individual character of each piece: In Wo Jiang, the permeating taste of primordiality is brought by the continuous repetition of the second interval as a driving agent in the bass part, giving origin to the music developed; where vertically there is overtone singing in the upper part, which combines to create a sense of remoteness. The highest notes in the tone cluster passages are sometimes dissonance of second interval that enables a more ringing sound in the high register, whereas in Huan Hun Cao the vertically aligned second interval appears in the inner voices, specially in soprano two and alto, giving way to the emphasis of the highest note sung by soprano one. On the other hand, the horizontal employment of second interval typifies the opening and ending sections of this piece when the moving line shows some descending half step against the long drones sung by the lower parts. This effectively depicts an eerie but yet spacious sensation with regard to the select texts. The usages of second interval are two-folded in Yi Nian – vertical and ornamental – the pitched water glasses are tuned to A, G and F; the humming passages of the chorus feature a descending step in the first tenor to function as an appoggiatura. These altogether enrich the harmonic progression of the chordal harmonies. Encircled begins with irregular subdivisions of beat on C# within the common time by both first and second sopranos though the first soprano repeatedly drives to a semitone higher on the last note of each phrase. Such metallic sound yet sometimes dissonant connects to the imaginary sword fight. The interval of second in the style of ornaments fits well the flute part in the third movement of Chun Hen – The Reunion to orientalize it into Dizi. Wintry sketches also includes interval of second, especially over long notes in the woodwind section, to make depiction of a uncomfortable and piercing scenery atop of a bare mountain. / 此作品集由八首作品組成，包括五首合唱，一項多媒體創作，一首弦樂四重奏及一首管弦。它們都是於二零一一至二零一五年間，本人為博士研究生時創作。作品集裡的作品都有以下共通點：有目的地運用二度音程及展現中國音樂藝術美學的氛圍與詩意。此外，作品集中的器樂作品，都會帶有一點合唱音樂的特徵。 / 本人入讀香港中文大學音樂博士課程前，已致力發展合唱指揮及創作事業，所以合唱音樂佔整個作品集不少篇幅。於在學五年間，本人於聲音及和聲處理上得到很大的啟發；及於樂曲發展、結構與曲式上，更獲資深的指導，創作中更能強調藝術作品的連貫與統一性，乃本人一大突破。 / 於創作上，透過靈活運用二度音程，此作品集中每首作品皆展現獨特性。《我將》的低音聲部，由橫向重複二度音程句組成，豐富了樂曲的推進性。縱向角度，男高音一使用的泛音唱法，則為音樂營造出遙遠感。於多高音和弦（四個音以上的和弦），最高的兩個音也會出現二度音程。透過產生此類不協調和聲，高音聲部較亮麗的音色會更為突出。而於《還魂草》，縱向二度音程則發生於內聲部，見於女高二音及女低音，並停留於中音區，讓女高音一的旋律性能明顯地呈現。另外，樂曲首尾兩段均應用了橫向二度音程。此手法與其他聲部的持續長音同時發生，使兩個聲部產生渺小卻奇異的音程變化，有效地塑造歌詞表達的空間感。《一念》中，二度音程運用大致見於兩段落：已定音的盛水玻璃杯及合唱部份的哼唱段落。後者的二度音程出現於男高音一的倚音，為和聲發展加添色彩。此種把二度音程應用於裝飾音的技巧，亦出現於《春痕》第三樂章《再遇》。為強調東方感，長笛演奏一系列上、下行的倚音，模仿笛子的加花演奏。《圍》除了強調開首女高音一、二於升C音的重複對唱、不規則的四・四拍分拍外，首段樂句均以二度音程作結，產生一種金屬性的聲音，模仿古代的刀光劍影。《冬之素描》亦包括了二度音程與和聲的運用，尤其於木管組的長音上，描繪於空曠高山上不安及寒風刺骨的感覺。 / Chan, Ka Hei. / Thesis D.Mus. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Abstracts also in Chinese; includes Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 06, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, when young Chinese scholars looked to Western nations for answers in hope of revitalizing a nation that once dominated the East, musicians and poets embarked on a journey of establishing a new Chinese style of music. Three sets of composer/poet collaborations and three different ways of infusing Western culture with Chinese culture laid the foundation for Chinese choral music today. Chao Yuan-Ren was a brilliant linguist and music lover who thought that to simply implant Western music onto Chinese text would suffice–his HaiYun, set to a poem of the equally brilliant poet Xu Zhi-Mo serves as a good example. Huang Zi believed in Confucius’ teachings that all new things must grow out of tradition. He and the lyricist Wei Huang-Zhang extended a literary tradition started in the Tang dynasty and produced Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which illustrates this philosophy quite well. Yet, for the underprivileged people who also loved music, folk songs provided a fertile ground as seen in the works of Xian Xing-Hai. During the second Sino-Japanese War, the poet Guang Wei-Ran and Xian worked hand-in-hand, producing the Yellow River Cantata that contains folksong-like melodies and many folk-music elements. Chinese choral music today is unavoidably connected to these three pieces. This document traces the early history of Chinese choral music through these three pieces and explains their influences on Chinese choral music today.